2017 HYUNDAI TUCSON SE VIN KM8J33A4XHU594580

The Hyundai Tucson SE described here left the factory in 2017. Power reaches the wheels through an automatic gearbox. Power comes from a 2.0-litre petrol engine with four cylinders. Every figure for this car is given as it appears in the source data.

The recorded mileage is 155,471 miles. The instruments count in miles; the same distance in kilometres is about 1.6 times the figure. Averaged over the car’s age, the mileage works out well above the usual annual distance, and wear on the suspension, brakes and interior should be judged with that in mind. A single figure proves little: what makes a mileage believable is a series of readings that rise steadily over the years. Figures carry most weight when they come from independent sources: workshops, inspection stations and past title paperwork.

Primary damage in the record: front end. The damage type is a short label: the extent of the damage and the quality of any repair still have to be judged on the car.

A note in the source data says the car did not run. The engine could not be started. No key is recorded with the car, and a replacement has to be coded to the immobiliser.

The record shows a salvage title. A title of this kind usually means the car was written off as a total loss after damage.

A car’s history is everything logged against it since it left the factory: registrations and owners, inspections, repairs and insurance claims. From the outside, a car with a repaired accident and a car without one can look identical.

When a car does not run, a compression test and the condition of the oil tell a mechanic whether the engine can be brought back to life. Many modern petrol engines are turbocharged and direct-injected; where they are, the turbocharger and injectors belong on a specialist’s checklist. While the car does not run, stored fault codes and a look at the fluid are the only early evidence of how the automatic gearbox has fared.

The VIN is a 17-character code assigned at the factory: it identifies the manufacturer, the model and its variant, and ends with a serial number unique to the car. This Hyundai Tucson SE has the VIN KM8J33A4XHU594580. A VIN that differs between the documents and the car, or shows signs of tampering, is reason enough to walk away.

Where entries exist, a VIN check can show changes of owner, past mileage readings, reported damage and whether the car is listed as stolen. A professional inspection makes sense whatever the paperwork shows, because no report measures corrosion, worn bushes or a poor repair. The history behind VIN KM8J33A4XHU594580 is the natural starting point before any decision about this Hyundai Tucson SE.